INTERNATIONAL UNION

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

October 24, 1973

INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, et al., Plaintiffs,
v.
NATIONAL RIGHT TO WORK LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION, INC., et al., Defendants

Under this proviso, interested employers are barred from financing or otherwise supporting Title I lawsuits brought by employees against their unions.

The statutory right of labor organizations to be free from worker suits financed directly or indirectly by interested employers is therefore clear and unambiguous. Where congressional intent is clear in the language of the statute, there is no need to resort to general rules of statutory construction or legislative history in order to construe the provision in issue. Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. Federal Maritime Commission, 131 U.S.App.D.C. 246, 404 F.2d 824; District of Columbia Nat. Bank v. District of Columbia, 121 U.S.App.D.C. 196, 348 F.2d 808. As a functional matter, the proviso serves to protect unions from harassing litigation and illegal management interference with their internal disputes with dissident workers. Title I as enacted serves that purpose while achieving the overriding objective of guaranteeing fundamental rights to members of labor organizations. The teeth of Title I are rooted in the civil enforcement provision, section 102 LMRDA, 29 U.S.C. § 412, WHICH AFFORDS "PERSONS" WHOSE RIGHTS ARE SECURED BY Title I the opportunity to vindicate those rights in this Court. The Court finds that the rights referred to in section 102 of the Act include express assurance to labor organizations that they shall be immune from "interested employer" intrusion in their judicial disputes with workers.

The definition section of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 402, provides that the term "person" includes labor organizations. Thus, in light of the "rights secured" for unions by the second proviso to subsection 101(a)(4) of the Act, plaintiffs have "standing" to bring the instant action within the express grant of section 102, supra.1

Litigative strategy is the work of lawyers, not courts. Plaintiffs have decided to confront an allegedly illegal and certainly aggravating wellspring of employee lawsuits in one proceeding before this Court. The Court is unconcerned whether plaintiffs are steering the safest passage through the broiling waters of litigation, or, for that matter, whether plaintiffs have seized upon the propitious moment for raising the questions now before the Court. It can only be said with respect to plaintiffs' first cause of action that they are rightfully here and we are properly all together.

III. PLAINTIFFS ARE "AGGRIEVED" MEMBERS OF THE CLASS PROTECTED BY THE REPORTING AND DISCLOSURE REQUIREMENT OF SECTION 203 OF THE LMRDA, AND, THEREFORE, HAVE STANDING TO INVOKE THE JURISDICTION OF THIS COURT UNDER 28 U.S.C. § 1337 TO OBTAIN ENFORCEMENT OF THE REPORTING REQUIREMENT.

(1) To persuade employees to exercise or not to exercise, or persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing; or

(2) To supply an employer with information concerning the activities of employees or a labor organization in connection with a labor dispute involving such employer, except information for use solely in conjunction with an administrative or arbitral proceeding or a criminal or civil judicial proceeding;" (emphasis added). 29 U.S.C. § 433(b)(1)(2)

Plaintiffs contend, in part, that the defendants' financing and managing of lawsuits brought by employees against plaintiff unions are means by which defendants seek to persuade workers to exercise or not to exercise, or to persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. It is plaintiffs' belief that defendants' failure to file the appropriate reports over the period from 1969 to present constitutes an ongoing violation of the Act that irreparably injures plaintiffs in their administration of the internal affairs of their unions and in their respective collective bargaining efforts.

The only question now before the Court with respect to Plaintiffs' second cause of action under section 203, supra, is whether private litigants may invoke the jurisdiction of this Court to obtain the relief requested in this suit. The Court holds that jurisdiction exists here on the basis of 28 U.S.C. § 1337 which provides:

"The District courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action or proceeding arising under any Act of Congress regulating commerce or protecting trade and commerce against restraints and monopolies."

Since the amended complaint, as drawn, seeks recovery and equitable relief under an "Act of Congress regulating commerce," the issues raised herein are within the jurisdiction of this Court. See Section 2(c) of the Act, 29 U.S.C. § 401(c). See also Serio v. Liss, 300 F.2d 386 (3rd Cir. 1961).

The test for jurisdiction under § 1331(a) is both the existence of a federal question and determination of an amount in controversy of more than ten thousand dollars. Upon the amended complaint before the Court, the Court cannot find, to a legal certainty, that no recovery could satisfy the statutory standard in the case at bar. St. Paul Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Red Cab Co., 303 U.S. 283, 289, 82 L. Ed. 845, 58 S. Ct. 586 (1938). Furthermore, as drawn, the amended complaint seeks recovery and equitable relief under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Therefore, plaintiffs have made sufficient allegations to meet the statutory minimum for jurisdiction in the instant action.

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